Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Return from the Hunt - from a painting at the Theban Necropolis (17th Dynasty)

Counting the oxen - drawing of a bas-relief found in the tomb of Chamhati,the superintendent of the royal domains during the 18th dynasty

?Perfume containers and grooming utensils

Profile portraits drawn from bas-relief figures at the Necropolis of Thebes.

Necklaces, bangles, rings and jewellery segments from various periods

A hunter returns to his barge - from a 12th Dynasty tomb painting(2100-1900BC) at the cemetery of Beni Hasan*

A native from the fabled and mysterious Land Of Punt carries goods on an ass- from a painting found in the ?valley of El-Assacif at Thebes

By the banks of the Orontes river, King Ramses II (Ramses-Meiamoun or Ozymandius* or Ramesses the Great, the third ruler of the XIXth dynasty and considered the most powerful Pharaoh of all) battles the Hittites (Khetas) from his chariot. Although not stated, this illustration presumably derives from a sculpture or bas-relief at the Ramesses II temple at Abu Simbel in Nubia.

The Prince's chariot - from a sculpture at el-Amarna [Akhetaten] (300km south of Cairo)*; "..established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353 BC), and abandoned shortly afterwards.."

Sketch (of a sketch) of ?purification ritual foreigners prostrating before the Pharaoh from the Necropolis at Thebes

Weighing and judgement of the soul duringa funerary ritual at the court of Osiris (18th dynasty)

[click through for full-sized versions; all these chromolithographs were cropped from full-page illustrations]

Émile Prisse d'Avesnes (d'Avennes) (1807-1879) was an important mid-19th century French Egyptologist and something of a polymath. He was a soldier, engineer, writer, illustrator and talented linguist.

From 1827 to 1844 d'Avesnes resided in Egypt, teaching cartography and working as an engineer for a time, but eventually he devoted himself to documenting and studying the archaeological treasures from ancient Egypt. He became proficient in hieroglyphs, on the back of Champollion's translations of the Rosetta Stone, and learned to speak at least half a dozen languages fluently during his expeditions around Egypt and further afield in the Arab world.

Ransacking of the artefacts was rife in those days of course and d'Avesnes helped excavate and transfer a large shipment of portrait reliefs from the Valley of the Kings to France, ostensibly to prevent their theft and use as local building material. The brazen act would earn d'Avesnes the Legion of Honour award when he returned to his homeland.

He published a number of Egypt-centric works in the decade following his return to France and eventually set about obtaining support for a further expedition which was undertaken from 1858 to 1860. On this occasion he was accompanied by a photographer (the photographs are now located in the French National Library).

"When he returned to Paris in I860; Prisse brought 300 folio drawings of paintings of various epochs, each up to seven or eight meters (23 to-26 feet) long; 400 meters (1300 feet) of paper impressions of bas-reliefs; 150 photographs of architectural and ornamental details, plans,sections and elevations; and 150 stereoscopic photographs, together with his enormous collection of drawing and notes. He also brought back, and later donated to the Louvre, the skulls of 29 mummies which he had identified by era, position and individual name." [source]

The most important of d'Avesnes' publications -- the subject of this post -- was released in installments over ten years and eventually compiled into a three volume work (one text and two illustrated atlases) in 1878 entitled: 'Histoire de l'Art Égyptien: d'après les Monuments; Depuis les Temps les Plus Reculés Jusqu'à la Domination Romaine' (~The history of Egyptian art from monuments from the earliest times up to Roman occupation).

Previously in particular (all very much related and worth seeing): L'Art Arabe features similarly wonderful chromolithographs by Émile Prisse d'Avesnes and associated information. ||Egyptian Monuments and Hieroglyphs [Karl Lepsius - who is named on at least one of the plates by d'Avesnes as the originator of the illustration] ||The Monuments of Egypt and Nubia [featuring the results of work done by Jean-François Champollion and Ippolito Rosselini]

I woke up half an hour ago to wish my parents and brother Happy New year (they perpetually live 8 hours in the past), and thanks to Blogger's "Blog of Note" feature, what should be my first surprise of 2010? Why, BibliOdyssey, of course. : )

As an ardent admirer of all things ancient Egypt, your post has officially made my day and hopefully set the tone for the year ahead. lol

These illustrations are simply stunning... I'm getting goosebumps just looking at them!...imagine "300 folio drawings...400 metres of paper impressions of bas-reliefs.. 150 photographs" what an incredible life it must have been to spend so much time doing what sparks you up inside... true bliss :)

Now, is it just me or does it seem a little bit ironic that the blog of a search engine company would fail to notice that in their archives from a few years ago is an entry for BibliOdyssey as a blog of note? Perhaps they reached the end of the Internet and are now making their way back to the beginning?

Regardless, I am flattered by the recognition: it's always nice to receive encouragement and that remains just as applicable today as it was the first time around, although I was probably closer to a heart attack from shock back then.

So, 2010 huh? (that's twenty-ten, not two thousand and ten) I'm hoping it's the year of civil behaviour on the internet. Surely the age-old forces for good have the best opportunity to prevail in this great melting pot? Here's hoping. Be nicer.

The "?purification ceremony" is actually just a few excerpted examples of foreigners making prostrations to Pharaoh. There's what looks like a Nubian on the left showing the initial position of the prostration process, two Syrians/Canaanites in the middle (though they're dressed as Egyptians, oddly) showing the middle of the process, and an Egyptian shown on his face in the final part of the prostration process. This is the "bending the knee": one ends up on one's belly, face down on the ground, hands extended forward, the right leg extended, but the left leg bent, so that one can quickly stand up again on the left foot.